You can set your watch to the Cougars. In other words, if it’s Saturday, it’s time to get absolutely torched by the (fill in the blank).

It’s been that way for two years, but it’s not like there weren’t plenty of warning signs in the years leading up to the ongoing pigskin meltdown on the Palouse.

The Cougars have not posted a winning record or gone to a bowl game since 2003. There were 42-12 and 55-13 losses to USC in ’04 and ’05, the 47-17 beat-down at Arizona State in ’06, the 52-17 shellacking by Oregon on Senior Night at Martin Stadium in ’07.

The past two years, however, have seen the Cougars pounded into submission on a regular basis like never before. The 3-18 record is bad enough, but the scores are routinely pathetic, the average margin of defeat adding up to a jaw-dropping 34 points.

In other words, if the Cougars lose 33-0, they’re improving.

More than a few fans have called for Paul Wulff’s head — well, at least for his whistle and playbook — but too little time has elapsed to determine how much blame Wulff and his staff deserve for this calamity.

Why? Because no coaching staff in football history could win consistently with the talent residing in Pullman the past two years.

Knute Rockne would not have posted a winning record as WSU’s coach in 2008-09. Nor would Bear Bryant. Or Pete Carroll. Or Urban Meyer. Or Vince Lombardi. Or Bill Walsh. Or any other coaching legend.

Wulff bashers love to ignore the plain, simple facts, which are: The Cougars are too young, slow, small, inexperienced and injury prone to succeed in big-boy football. They are routinely manhandled at the line of scrimmage, and lest one forget, it is in the trenches where games are won and lost.

It will take years for the Cougars to completely recover from the lackluster recruiting efforts of the previous coaching regime. Wulff raves about WSU’s 2010 recruits — he says it might be the best crop in school history — but Scout.com ranks the group eighth in the Pac-10 and 48th in the nation.

Of course, few freshmen step in and dominate at the Pac-10 level. That is particularly true at Washington State, where blue-chip recruits rarely set foot. Ten freshmen have made starts for WSU this season, and you see the result.

Do Wulff and his assistants get a free pass for the disastrous results of the past two years? Of course not. Last year, they tried to force-feed too much too soon on confused and frustrated players. This season, they refused to play Jeff Tuel — the best quarterback on the team, without question, from the first day of fall camp to the last — until the fourth game.

Yeah, yeah, we know — they wanted to redshirt Tuel, a true freshman. Well, they stayed with that plan for two whole games (although Tuel did not play for another week after that).

Sorry, but Tuel did not magically improve while carrying a clipboard the first two games. Nor did early starters Kevin Lopina and Marshall Lobbestael suddenly take drastic steps backward.

Alas, no quarterback this side of Peyton Manning could save the Cougars from themselves right now. Four games remain to be played, and the Cougars will have to pull off an upset to avoid tying the school record for losses that was set last year.

Do not, however, confuse this year’s Cougars with last year’s motley crew. The scores and statistics may be similar, but this year’s team produces vats of sweat at every practice and game. Last year, there were more than a few questionable characters who only hustled when they were playing pool.

WSU players are to be commended for continuing to play and practice with enthusiasm and determination as another lost season grinds to an end. Of course, hard work and dedication is expected of Pac-10 athletes. Ultimately, winning is what matters most in the multimillion-dollar business that is college football, and coaches who don’t win eventually find themselves in need of a good realtor.

ALSO: Paul Wulff said Sunday that junior strong safety Chima Nwachukwu is expected to miss at least one game with the ankle sprain he suffered in Saturday’s 40-14 loss to Notre Dame. Nwachukwu was injured in the first quarter. He started the day died for fourth in the Pac-10 with a team-high 7.9 tackles per game.

Longtime Pacific Northwest sports writer Howie Stalwick covers Washington State football and various other sports subjects for the Kitsap Sun and numerous other media sources throughout the state and beyond.